Child Development and Education

Femke Geijsel, professor by special appointment of Educational Sciences

10 November 2014

Dr F.P. Geijsel (1969) has been named professor by special appointment of Educational Sciences, specialising in leadership and management at education institutions, at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. The chair was established on behalf of Stichting Nederlandse School voor Onderwijsmanagement (Dutch School for Education Management Foundation, or NSO).

Femke Geijsel's work focuses on management ideologies and leadership styles
within various education sectors and across different layers of education
institutions. She studies factors that could explain problems affecting
leadership and management at such institutions and the effects of measures to
promote the development and improvement of leadership and management (including
professionalisation). Geijsel is also interested in the impact of
professionalisation programmes on participants, their professional development
and the learning capacity of the organisations where they work. One special
theme within her research is exploratory innovation and research leadership at
schools, in connection with which she took part in a collaborative study into
government-subsidised development and research projects in secondary education
(the Expeditie Durven-Delen-Doen (‘Dare-Share-Do Expedition’) and
SLOA-VO projects; in association with the VO-raad (Secondary Education
Board)).

Her current research builds on her own previous studies on transformational
leadership, innovative capacity, citizenship-building and school development.
Working with fellow scientists, Geijsel developed the Dutch School Improvement
Questionnaire, which measures innovative capacity, and a citizenship measurement
tool (Meetinstrument Burgerschap –
www.burgerschapmeten.nl).

Geijsel has worked at the UvA since 2004, first as a postdoc and subsequently
as a university lecturer in the Educational Sciences Department, at the
Kohnstamm Institute and in the teacher-training programme. In 2012 she joined
the UvA's Research Institute of Child Development and Education as a senior
researcher and the UvA's Amsterdam Center for Inequality Studies (AMCIS).
Alongside her work at the UvA, Geijsel also held a lectorate in Pedagogical
Quality at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle from 2009 until
September 2014, together with Dr Yvonne Leeman. In that capacity she led the
Regional Attention and Action for Knowledge circulation's project-based research
(RAAK-PRO) on ‘Citizenship and School Development’ and was leading lector of the
Master's programme in Learning and Innovation.

On 1 January 2014, Geijsel succeeded Prof. Robert-Jan Simons as director of
the NSO, a foundation in which the UvA, VU University Amsterdam, Utrecht
University, Leiden University and Radboud University work together to train
education leaders and managers. Established from within the UvA 25 years ago,
the NSO was an initiative of Prof. Fons van Wieringen and Dr Peter Karstanje (†
2012). Geijsel has published on a wide range of topics, including the scientific
journals Educational Administration Quarterly, Elementary School
Journal, Journal of Educational Administration, Journal of
Youth Studies and School Effectiveness and School Improvement.